Mosul, Iraq, Mar 20, 2010 / 03:09 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- A Christian man was killed in Mosul, Iraq on Wednesday, reports the Christian Post. Sabah Gurgis, 55, a shopkeeper who sells eye glasses was shot from the back by gunmen in an unmarked car using a pistol silencer. Gurgis was near the school of Shamoon Al-Safa while he was on his way to work.

“Unknown armed men driving an unmarked car killed Sabah Gurgis while he was on his way to work this morning,” Police Major Khalid Mahmud told Agence France-Presse shortly after the shooting. “One of the men opened fire on him before escaping.”

Gurgis, who was married and the father of at least one child, is a member of the minority Chaldean Catholic community. His death follows a recent string of violence against Christians and occurs just weeks after hundreds of Iraqi Christians protested the government's alleged inaction to these incidents.

The Christian Post also cited a United Nations report, stating that more than 680 Christian families, or over 4,000 people, fled Mosul between February 20 and 27.